The announcement gives the American plane maker orders for the new version worth more than $29 billion at list prices, a welcome bit of news for the Dreamliner program after troubles with its lightweight but volatile lithium-ion batteries grounded the entire 787 fleet for three months this year.
Boeing made its announcement on the second day of the Paris Air Show, soon after an announcement by its European rival, Airbus, that it had secured an $11.5 billion commitment from the British budget airline easyJet to purchase at least 135 of its smaller A320 single-aisle planes.
Boeing’s latest Dreamliner, known as the 787-10, is designed to seat as many as 330 passengers, compared with the 210 to 290 seats on the models currently in production, and is meant to compete directly with the largest version of Airbus’s A350-XWB, which made its inaugural flight last week but is not due to enter service until late 2014.
Air Lease Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday for 30 of the new versions. United Airlines, which already has six 787s in its fleet and has ordered at least 25 more, converted 10 of its existing orders into 787-10s and placed 10 new orders for the stretch version.
GE Capital Aviation Services, another lessor, firmed up a previously announced commitment for 10 planes and Singapore Airlines for 30. British Airways said it would buy 12 planes, subject to the approval of its shareholders.
Such a large initial order book for the 787-10 suggested that a bigger Dreamliner was overdue, analysts said.
“This is a highly unusual example of the market launching a plane rather than the company,” said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst at the Teal Group in Fairfax, Va. “This plane is off to a very solid start.”
Boeing said it planned to begin deliveries of the 787-10 in 2018, just after Airbus says it expects to deliver the first 350-seat version of its A350, in 2017.
The competition between Boeing and Airbus in the market for wide-body jets in the 300-to-400-seat category has intensified as the nascent global economic recovery encourages airlines to invest in larger, longer-range aircraft after several years of brisk purchases of single-aisle jets like the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737.
With oil prices remaining stubbornly high, airlines are hoping to both replace older fuel-guzzling planes with newer models and maximize the number of passengers who can be carried on lucrative long-distance routes. “That means getting the most you can get in terms of aircraft length and number of seats,” Mr. Aboulafia said.
With a range of 7,000 nautical miles, or 13,000 kilometers, the larger 787 will not be able to fly as far as the A350 on a single tank of fuel; Airbus says the A350 will have a range of as many as 8,400 nautical miles. But Boeing argues that its plane will cost less to operate.
“The 787-10 is 25 percent more efficient than airplanes of its size today and more than 10 percent better than anything being offered by the competition for the future,” said Raymond L. Conner, the chief executive of Boeing’s commercial aircraft division.
Boeing also reached a deal on Tuesday to sell five more passenger versions of its revamped 747 jumbo jet to Korean Air, as well as six long-range 777s, in a deal valued at around $3.6 billion at list prices. The new version of the 747, known as the 747-8, entered service in 2011, but it has faced tepid interest from airlines, with only around 100 orders so far. Korean Air already had orders for five passenger versions and seven freighter versions of the 747-8.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/19/business/global/boeing-confirms-plan-for-longer-dreamliner.html?partner=rss&emc=rss